The Intelligence Quotient Turbulence
by What's a hickey
Summary: What happens when some groundbreaking news about Amy comes to Sheldon's attention? Just a head canon of mine. Hope you enjoy!


**A/N – After some encouragement from my favorite fandom friends, I decided to try and write some Shamy again. It'd been awile, but the Shamy are just too important to me that I didn't want to mess up writing them. Thanks for the persuading and I hope you enjoy! **

**Thanks Stef (teoriapostmoderna) for beta reading this! I love her to pieces and her Amy/Shamy writing is phenomenal! :)**

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing.**

* * *

"Well gentlemen, it looks like another successful vintage video game night has come and gone. Now would you leave please, it is almost my bed time and I don't want to be disturbed by the antics of the likes of you all."

Ushering Howard and Raj out the door, Sheldon was eager to have both of them leave so he could talk to his best friend about a few private matters. He almost shuddered as he thought back to what was disturbing him to his core:

Amy was _smarter_ than him.

There were many things that the vixen did that made him feel slightly uncomfortable, but he eventually let those go. He'd accepted the fact that she was never going to share his passion for the sci fi world, but he appreciated her efforts. He at first felt uncomfortable with handholding. Now it was a part of his beloved routine that he would miss dearly if it went away. Even kissing was now worked into his perfectly scheduled life, made possible by the shattering kiss he'd shared with Amy on the train.

He always knew she was brilliant, that being one of the many things he lo–… _admired _ about her. She was at the top of her field and could go toe to toe with the likes of Sheldon Lee Cooper, something that made him extremely flush at times.

But this was just something he didn't know how to react to.

His whole life revolved around the idea that he was a Homo Novus, superior to all other beings. His intellect had come to define who he was, giving him a sense of identity that he could fall back on in tough situations. Whenever he felt isolated, cut off from the outside world, he always fell back on the claim that "Who needs those people, they're too stupid to understand me."

Now the truth was out that Amy's IQ was higher than his, and it sent him into overdrive, dredging up all the painful memories of his past.

Luckily he could now vent to his buddy about his current conundrum since his other two friends had left, finally. He slowly made it back over to his beloved spot, shoulders slumped, looking defeated; something that did not go unnoticed by Leonard.

"Leonard, I wish to discuss with you a personal matter."

"Oh no, did someone mess up your bowel movement schedule again? Sheldon you just have to get over it buddy."

Frustration written all over his face, Sheldon vehemently denied his ridiculous claim. "No that's not it, but if that were to happen you'd never hear the end of it mister!"

Taking a deep breath, Sheldon prepared himself to tell Leonard what was truly bothering him. His eidetic memory was both a blessing and a curse, but right now he wished he could forget the whole situation.

"Well it all started yesterday afternoon after I accompanied Amy to her apartment…"

* * *

**_Last Night_**

Entering her apartment with Sheldon in tow, Amy was satisfied with how well her zoo date went today.

Whenever her and Sheldon went anywhere together, she always tended to have a splendid time with him. She got to see the return of his koala face, which she adored and he got to see her giddy side when she saw the primate section of the Pasadena Zoo.

Now here she was, a huge grin on her face as she slung her bag over her head and tossed it on the chair next to her door, taking off her coat as well, her actions mirroring those of her boyfriend who took off his jacket as well.

"Hey Sheldon, I'm making spaghetti with little hot dogs in it, your favorite!"

Before Sheldon got here, he didn't think the day could get any better. Clearly he was wrong. His friends always told him that Amy was the best girlfriend he was ever going to have. Each and everyday, she proved herself to be just that and he couldn't be happier.

"That sounds lovely Amy! Thank you."

"No problem. I'm just going to go use the restroom before I start making dinner."

She made her way out of the living room, down the hallway to her bathroom, giving Sheldon a few minutes to explore her apartment.

He'd been here countless times since that first night when she drunkenly kissed him. He realized that he never really explored her apartment, particularly her bookshelves.

Catching his attention was a large official-looking manila folder lying on top of the small bookshelf next to the hallway. On the front, in bold letters was 'AMY FARRAH FOWLER' written on a label from the Med Science Center in Glendale.

Not one to snoop, Sheldon noticed the envelope was already open, presuming Amy had already opened it. Curious, he took out the contents of the envelope and was pleasantly surprised to see brain scans and a detailed report of the results. Proud that she would adhere to his tradition of getting yearly brain scans, he marveled at the beauty that was Amy's brain.

_Subject 'Amy Farrah Fowler' showed high metabolism levels in the hippocampus and temporal lobe. Subject had excellent recall of stimulus after a delayed period of 1 minute. Subject experienced increased releases of oxytocin from the hypothalamus when shown images of primates and 'Sheldon Lee Cooper'_

Overwhelmed by the genius that was his girlfriend and the fact that the hormone signaling love was released when she saw his picture, he failed to notice her IQ at first. Looking down at the number, he nearly dropped the paper.

_190_.

_190._

_190._

He kept repeating it in his head, almost as if he had a broken record inside his brain. Three points higher. Three points higher. If his IQ couldn't be measured by modern tests, hers must have been magnificent.

_She's smarter than me. I always knew she had a beautiful mind. Clearly she does, but why didn't she tell me about this? I'm happy for her. She's the genius I always thought to be, but no one has EVER been smarter than me. _

Swiftly and gently sliding the scans and report back in the envelope, he placed it back where it was before, determined to talk to Amy immediately about this.

Sheldon's escapade with the envelope in question lasted a total of two minutes and Amy appeared from the bathroom, all freshened up, ready to start on the spaghetti.

As she made her way into the kitchen, Amy noticed Sheldon watching her every move, like a jungle cat ready to maul its prey.

She felt titillated and uncomfortable at the same time. Sheldon had never looked at her with such intensity and it was beginning to make her a bit nervous.

"Sheldon, why do you keep staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?" Her hands immediately shot up to her face, ready to cover the embarrassing blemish that was causing her boyfriend to give her a stare that could see to her soul.

"You have nothing on your face Amy."

With this, her hands relaxed comfortably at her sides, but she was still anxious as to why Sheldon was glaring at her like that.

"Then what is it Sheldon? Is something bothering you?"

Suddenly turning sheepish, her once confident and albeit sexy boyfriend now was a man that apparently had a very intense fascination with her floor.

"Well…..while you were in the bathroom, I….. may have looked at your brain scans and the report and um…... seen your IQ."

Three feelings ran through Amy's apparently popular mind. First, she was angry that Sheldon would just rifle through her things without even asking her. That was a complete breach in privacy and it made her squirm, scared of what else he may have looked at.

The second feeling she experienced was one of guilt. She knew she should have told him her score as soon as she received the results a week ago. Her fear of this exact reaction from him, kept her from sharing this wonderful news with him.

Her last feeling was one of giddiness. She was so happy when she received the news and even if Sheldon were angry with her, nothing was going to sour her mood about having one of the highest IQ's in the world.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner Sheldon. I was worried you were going to be angry with me, which you clearly are."

"Of course I'm angry Amy! I'm supposed to be the smarter one in this relationship, not you! You're supposed to be below me, I'm the Homo Novus here." His face had gone red with rage, only fueling Amy's anger from earlier even more.

Amy couldn't believe how much of a sexist and rude pig Sheldon was being at the moment and wasn't going to hold back now. "Now hold on just a minute mister! Since when are you supposed to be the smarter one in this relationship? I thought we were supposed to be intellectual equals?"

Knowing himself to be digging himself a bigger hole, Sheldon instantly clammed up, giving Amy the chance to continue on her angry tirade.

"And let me tell you something else buddy ! If you're so insecure about your girlfriend having a few more IQ points then you, well then you need to act like an adult and grow a pair!"

"But Amy –"

"GET OUT!"

She practically pushed him out the door, hastily grabbing his jacket on the way out, and shoved him and the garment out the door, furiously slamming it behind him.

He slumped his shoulders and dragged his feet down the hallway, admitting defeat and feeling guilty over what he said.

Now he needed a way to get himself out of the proverbial doghouse, and quick. Or his relationship with Amy could disappear faster than he could say intelligence quotient

* * *

"And that's why we haven't spoken all day and why Amy is ignoring me."

Leonard just sat and stared at Sheldon in awe. How such a genius could mess up his relationship this badly constantly made him want to scratch his chin.

"Buddy I think you just need to apologize to Amy. So what if she has a higher IQ than you, does that mean you love her any less?"

"Hold on Leonard, I never said I loved Amy." Truth be told, he didn't know what he felt for Amy, but even he knew that he didn't want his relationship with her to end over some stupid comments he made to make himself feel better.

"Well whatever you feel about her, you need to go see her and tell her you were being an asshole. You need to man up! If it were me, I would love to have a smarter girlfriend than me."

With that, he rose from the tan armchair and made his way back to his bedroom. Once Girl's Night was finished across the hall, he would join Penny later in her apartment.

Left alone with his thoughts, Sheldon pondered Leonard's query about wanting his girlfriend to be smarter than him. He found the idea somewhat arousing and it stirred up some fantasies of Amy in nothing but a lab coat, ready to take him right then and there.

Shaking his head to banish the bedroom and shower thoughts away, he decided that he needed to apologize to Amy tonight for his rude comments or he would be saying goodbye to his relationship with her.

Just that thought alone made his palms sweat and breathing erratic.

Getting up from the couch, he made his way across the hall, where he could hear Amy, Bernadette, and Penny jabbering on about some Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie nonsense.

Seeing as this was a good time as any, Sheldon knocked on the familiar door, this time with trepidation and fear of what might come.

_*knock, knock, knock* _Amy, Bernadette, Penny!

_*knock, knock, knock* _Amy, Bernadette, Penny!

_*knock, knock, knock* _Amy, Bernadette, Penny!

Opening the door was a pissed off Amy, clearly not pleased at him standing there. He gave Penny and Bernadette a tiny wave, both of them looking pretty peeved at him as well.

"I thought I made it clear that I didn't want to talk to you Sheldon."

"Amy, please come over to my apartment so I can apologize. What I said was wrong and I was wondering of we could speak alone."

He could see that she was thinking about coming over, but still had trouble reading her facial expressions. He was getting better at it, but to him, Amy was still a mystery waiting to be uncovered.

"Fine. But you have 5 minutes."

The couple made their way back over to Sheldon's apartment, and as soon as he shut the door, the apology just spilled out of him.

"Amy, you have to know how sorry I am for making those comments about you. I wasn't thinking right and I regretted saying them as soon as they left my mouth. It was just a shock for me to see that someone could be more intelligent than me. My whole life, I used my intelligence as a crutch and yesterday those results made me realize that maybe I was the wrong one all along and that scared the hell out of me Amy. I sounded horrible yesterday and I am truly sorry for making you feel that way."

By this point, both Sheldon and Amy were close to tears, the salty liquid clinging to their emerald and blue eyes with all their strength.

"Sheldon… I don't know what to say. Thank you for apologizing to me and I'm sorry I made you feel like that. You are still the brilliant man that I love and admire, no test can take that away."

Realizing the gravity of her words, she covered her mouth and was ready to flee the apartment, scared that he would run away again from such a confession.

Before her escape plan could come to fruition, she felt a strong grip on her arm, pulling her into a hug.

Hugging Sheldon turned out to be one of the greatest joys in her life. His large, warm arms were like heaven for Amy. She felt at home in them and she didn't think she could feel any better than she did at that moment.

Sheldon held onto Amy for what seemed like years, but in actuality was only a couple minutes. He loved hugging Amy, hell he loved everything about her.

Still in the hug, he leaned down and while entangled in her strawberry-smelling brunette hair, he whispered, "I love you too Amy Farrah Fowler."

Just hearing those words was enough to send Amy over the edge. The tears that had been fighting so hard to stay in her eyes were now streaming down her face, presumably staining Sheldon's Batman logo emblazoned shirt.

"Amy why are you crying?" Sheldon hated seeing her cry and it gutted him to see her in tears.

Pulling away from his shoulder, Amy looked up at his face, still wrapped in his strong arms.

"Oh these are happy tears Sheldon. I'm very, very happy!"

_Whew. _"Amy, I'm glad you're feeling better. Again I'm truly sorry for what I said."

"It's okay Sheldon, but just a warning: If you ever insult my intelligence or say that I should be below you, we're done. Clear?"

Sheldon had never nodded his head faster in his whole life.

"Sadly Sheldon I have to go home. I'll call you tomorrow and see if you want to maybe go to the zoo?"

"That would be agreeable. Good night Amy Farrah Fowler."

"Good night Sheldon Cooper." And with that she made her way down the four flights of stairs.

Sheldon watched her walk down and once she was out sight he sighed with relief. He didn't know how he would live with himself if he lost Amy.

_Hmmmm about that lab coat? Maybe Amy would wear that for me someday._

* * *

**A/N – Well that's it! In my head, Amy has a higher IQ than Sheldon! All of the brain scan stuff was from my own knowledge after 3 years of psychology class, so sorry for any mistakes. I'm thinking of expanding this story, so feel free to leave me a review and see if you'd be down for that!**

**xx Katie**


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